POLITICS CORNER

[Tizer]

The `huge enthusiast for the project' says `..the country needs metallurgical coal.' No it doesn't - it needs a way to make steel that avoids the CO2 emissions of coal. And there are ways. Sweden uses HE energy and other ways are in development that I've mentioned on OG in the past - the money should go into this development work, not coal mines. The impression is always given that this is a little local company trying to give jobs to local people. It isn't - the real driver behind this project is a giant multinational mining company and it's objective is to carry on making profits out of coal wherever it can. We know people in Cumbria need jobs but let's make them in modern, `green' and renewable materials and processes. The Government should provide seed funding and encourage businesses to start those sorts of project in Cumbria and other areas deprived of jobs.

[Stanley]

I think that's a complete and unassailable piece of Logic Peter. From your mouth to God's ear!

[Tizer]

It'll have to go to Robert Jenrick's ear, he will be making the final decision soon. Sadly, I wouldn't put it past him to open the mine, even with the Glasgow COP meeting looming ahead.

There's a lot of news about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up the task of working out how proteins fold in three dimensions. What took years can now be done in minutes. I wonder if they'd let us use their AI to work out how to get rid of the present set of UK politicians and replace them with ones capable of running this country?

[Stanley]

All the mine owners need do is buy Jenrick a posh dinner...
Something I have noted is the fact that many non-government MPs have rumbled the delaying tactics with the Covid enquiry to make sure it doesn't happen before the next election. There is a rising demand for earlier action. I have an idea Lindsay Hoyle would not slap them down. Sooner or later Johnson's charmed life will end. I hope I am here to see it.

[plaques]

Sooner or later Johnson's charmed life will end. I hope I am here to see it.

Funny old world. The Buffoon is safe until his friendly fellow MPs see their gravy train coming to an end. People could just about live with seeing their grannies slipping off to the promised land because the epidemic was novel and we all make mistakes. But he's lovable. This time round he is playing with children's lives and the sentiment will be different. Nobody expects a political landslide but if enough floating voters float away it may be the start of seeing the Conservatives looking for a new leader. The end of september looks like the crunch time for the pandemic and for Brexit to really beginning to be felt. If the right-wing papers start making anti Boris noises then the end is near.

[Tizer]

But who would they choose to replace him and what are the odds on the contenders?

[PanBiker]

They would probably go for that Rishi bloke, he's good for a bob or two. He dresses smartly as well.

In our camp I would like to see Andy Burnham as leader. He's not ruled it out but has stated he will see out his tenure in the Mayoral role so that's two years down the line, oh well.

[Tizer]

Dishi Rishi might have spoilt his chances by siding with Boris in the `to isolate or to not isolate' fiasco.

[Stanley]

The funny thing about Tory leadership contests is that the winner is often a dark horse. The right wing press are already getting restive, even those sycophants are getting disturbed about the way this administration is being run. Don't discount the constant drip of poison from Cummings. He will not stop until he has destroyed Boris. (Nice man.... )
Meanwhile... really serious matters are quietly moving forwards. See THIS BBC report on the ongoing enquiry into the contaminated blood scandal. Widely regarded as the most serious failure of public health supervision ever and kicked down the road by every government for the last 40 years.
See THIS BBC report on the latest attempt by Johnson to divert attention from other matters. Apart from the fact that there is the matter of the Home Secretary's bad relations with the police, Labour critics are pointing out that much of the problem is down to the lack of local intelligence which is a direct result of starving local policing of funding in the last ten years.

[chinatyke]

A little story of grass -roots communsm.

We've just come back from near Xingye city where we stayed with my friend Michael and his wife's family in a countryside hamlet. It is a very remote rural area, but beautiful countryside. Most residents are involved in farming. We experienced typical Chinese hospitality, we just got included in the family. The family have 5 big detached houses all built close together on "family land" and everyone is related. Never a cross word was heard from adults or children, it was just brilliant. Here is an example of true communism that occurred whilst we were there.

Michael was gifted one floor of one of the brother's houses to use as his own retirement apartment. It is a recently built large house and not finished, so Michael's place was a completely bare canvas. Michael has gradually finished this and made a lovely 2-bedroomed self-contained apartment. Anyway, Michael decided to have the huge balcony floor tiled and required a few tonnes of sand. One of his brother-in-laws told him his sand was arranged but it would be when the supplier was passing, so he might have to wait a few days, but no money was required. Sure enough, a load of sand was delivered last week and another load a few days later. On Sunday a trip to a local village was arranged in brother-in-law's car. Before we set off two crates of chickens were put into the boot. On the way we called at a works yard and we were introduced to the owners, who made a fuss of the foreign guests, and Michael and I had our photos taken with them. Then Michael saw a big pile of sand and said he suspected that this was where his sand had come from, and I said this is where the chickens have just been unloaded and taken round the back. The penny dropped, it's a bartering community, not very cash rich, but everyone helps each other. The sand cost one person next to nothing and the chickens were reared from day old and likewise cost his brother next to nothing, and everyone is happy with the deal.
Honestly, I can't speak too highly of this country and its people. I wish the Western press would stop China and communism bashing and tell the real truth.
Come and see for yourself how it works!

[Stanley]

That's a nice account and I believe it. That's how communities should work.....

[PanBiker]

We could have the Western version that is Socialism but unfortunately if that word is mentioned the press don't know the difference or more to the truth don't want to. I wonder if you did a straw poll in the street how many folk would be able to give a reasonably accurate description of Socialism?

[chinatyke]

We could have the Western version that is Socialism but unfortunately if that word is mentioned the press don't know the difference or more to the truth don't want to. I wonder if you did a straw poll in the street how many folk would be able to give a reasonably accurate description of Socialism?

I can't say I've ever supported Socialism in the UK but I love it here. The downside is that everything is regarded as common property belonging to the whole family, or even to the wider commune. You could see these people were well off by the houses they had, but still cash poor. Maybe it was because they were farmers: they reared chickens and grew their own rice and some vegetables. The trees were loaded with fruit like dragon-eyes ( a small lychee fruit) and seemed to be neglected. They even had an orange grove that was definitely neglected, just left to go wild.

[PanBiker]

I can't say I've ever supported Socialism in the UK but I love it here.

Bit of a contradictory statement there China, why not? It would certainly be better than the capitalist regime we seem doomed to have to bear short of revolution.

[plaques]

How would you class Schools, parks. recreation facilities, roads. street lighting. police, armed forces, social services NHS and so on and on if it isn't socialism? Socialism is only bad if you have enough money to do whatever you like even if it against the interests of everybody else. Think global warming and Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and his millionaire ego trips. Our right-wing politicians are experts at paying lip service to the idea self help. Ref: David Cameron, Citizenship and the Big Society: a New Social Model? Now its Buffoon Boris with 'Levelllng up'. Humpty Dumpty words meaning whatever I want them to mean.

[PanBiker]

Yes Ken, I should have added that socialism has given us all the best bits of what we have in our society. We could add lots more, workers rights, paid holidays etc. We only have zero hours contracts thanks to the Tories oh and lets not forget no school milk courtesy of Maggie back in the day. Not seen as a biggie nowadays but was the predecessor to free school meals which have had to be fought for tooth and nail to prise it from those that have and don't need. I say it again we should have got shut of all the so called ruling classes back in the 18th C when the peasants were revolting elsewhere.

[chinatyke]

I can't say I've ever supported Socialism in the UK but I love it here.

Bit of a contradictory statement there China, why not? It would certainly be better than the capitalist regime we seem doomed to have to bear short of revolution.

Because when I was in England I worked hard for what I got and I wasn't going to share it! Totally selfish attitude. I hated paying up to 40% income tax and seeing it doled out to some bloody immigrant scrounger who didn't deserve it. I see a socialist ideology in operation here and it seems to work. Just my opinion.

[PanBiker]

I hated paying up to 40% income tax and seeing it doled out to some bloody immigrant scrounger who didn't deserve it.

I see you bought into the lies perpetrated by the media as well.

I worked damned hard as well and I wish I had been in a position to pay 40% income tax, never happened.

[Stanley]

Yes, that's a bit extreme Graham, especially to someone like me who is the son of an immigrant!
" Now its Buffoon Boris with 'Levelling up'. Humpty Dumpty words meaning whatever I want them to mean."
Exactly right Ken. Actually we had been doing quite well with the levelling up since 1945 until Reagan, Thatcher and the Chicago Economic School stepped in and set us on the road to a rerun of the 1920s in the Credit Crunch of 2008. Then from 2010 onwards the Tory controlled governments slashed all social spending, Cameron and Osborne did damage that still reverberates down the social scale. Then they out bozoed themselves and set us on track for Brexit. Don't get me going about Johnson, he and his clique are outdoing T May in hostile climates. They are no longer constrained to only existing in the Home Office. All public services and social budgets now operate in a hostile climate.

[chinatyke]

Yes, that's a bit extreme Graham, especially to someone like me who is the son of an immigrant!

But you are not "some bloody immigrant scrounger who didn't deserve it." Actually my grandmother was born in Australia, not from aboriginal stock but from Aussie immigrant stock, probably a transported one. As Bernard Manning put it: "If a dog is born in a stable, is it a horse?"

[Stanley]

I see this morning that the hostile environment has been extended to refusing asylum for many people in Afghanistan who will be in danger if they stay there because they worked for us. Only three weeks ago the government were assuring the world that they would be protected. So much for the value of their promise.

[PanBiker]

I'm still waiting for an explanation of why we cant have a socialist government in the UK. But it's perfectly acceptable in China and beloved by the immigrant Tyke.

[chinatyke]

I'm still waiting for an explanation of why we cant have a socialist government in the UK. But it's perfectly acceptable in China and beloved by the immigrant Tyke.

Probably only works in countries that have a dictatorship even if it isn't called that!

Yes, I'm an immigrant and contributing to the Chinese economy, no free-loading immie scroungers here.

[Tripps]

Fascinating conversation here.

Combining the above postings perhaps China could offer asylum to the Afghan refugees mentioned there. In fact has China ever accepted any asylum seekers? The numbers involved would be trivial for them. I doubt it, and I think they are actually going out, and re colonising (in all but name), countries throughout the world.

It was a long route to the current system, Behind the Bamboo curtain

[Tizer]

Even the Tories have had to dip their toes into socialism during the pandemic and now we have this news (although they would plead `special measures' because it's for defence of the realm)...
`Sheffield Forgemasters: Ministry of Defence to acquire steel firm' LINK

The word is that Rishi is looking at the socialist schemes found in Germany, Denmark and the Scandinavian countries and planning to adopt some hybrid of it all.